VOL. 20 No. 1
THE
MAGAZINE OF HISTORY-
WITH
NOTES AND QUERIES
Extra Number — £fa- 77
RARE LINCOLNIANA—No. 17
Comprising
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN . . . . (The late) Rev. Cyrus T. Brady
THE NATION'S WAIL (The late) Rev. George Duffield (1865)
CAPTAIN LINCOLN vs. PRIVATE THOMPSON . . (1832) Frank E. Stevens
A NEW LINCOLN STORY M. C. deK.
MEMORIES OF LINCOLN Rev. C. S. Bullock
THE TALL STRANGER ON DORCHESTER HEIGHTS, (The late) Albert D. Penis
Tarrytown, N. Y.
REPRINTED
WILLIAM ABBATT
1921
Bbing Extra Number 77 or the Magazine of History with Notes and Quemm
VOL. 20 No. 1
THE
MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
WITH
NOTES AND QUERIES
Extra Numter— £fa. XX
RARE LINCOLNIANA—No. 17
Comprising
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN . ... (The late) Rev. Cyrus T. Brady
THE NATION'S WAIL (The late) Rev. George Duffield (1865)
CAPTAIN LINCOLN vs. PRIVATE THOMPSON . . (1832) Frank E. Stevens
A NEW LINCOLN STORY M. C. deK.
MEMORIES OF LINCOLN Rev. C. S. Bullock
THE TALL STRANGER ON DORCHESTER HEIGHTS, (The late) Albert D. Ptnts
Tarrytown, N. Y.
REPRINTED
WILLIAM ABBATT
1921
Biinc Extra Numbxk 77 or the Magazine of History with Notes and Queries
Wafiljittgtom att& Uittatltt
A Comparison, a Contrast and a Consequence
An Address Delivered at
Before the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution
By
Rev. Cyrus Towns end Brady y LL.D.
Tarrytown, N. Y.
REPRINTED
WILLIAM ABBATT
1921
Being Extra Number 77 of the Magazine of History with Notes and Queries
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN
Gentlemen and Comrades, Sons of the Revolution:
Deeply sensible of the privileges of the opportunity you have
afforded me, I undertake the discharge of its obligations with a
seriousness of intent and an earnestness of purpose which I
trust will win me the consideration accorded to honest endeavor.
Rare, indeed, is it that any man whose station is merely that
of a private citizen of our Republic is permitted to address so
distinguished an assemblage, amid such historic surroundings,
on so happy an occasion. And profoundly do I appreciate the
honor. Without further preliminary save this assurance,
therefore, I enter upon my pleasant task.
Nations are like men. They begin, they end, and between
their limits are comprised the seven ages. Their span is longer
than that of the individual, but short enough in the sight of Him
to whom a thousand years are but as yesterday when it is past.
The United States of America was conceived at Lexington,
quickened at Bunker Hill and born at Philadelphia. It was bap-
tized in blood and snow at Trenton. It spoke stern words from
the cannon mouth at Saratoga. It struggled desperately for life
amid the cold at Valley Forge. It struck boldly for victory at
Guilford Courthouse and the Cowpens. It finally assumed the
toga virilis of independence at Yorktown.
Youngest among nations centuries old, it had to run the gamut
of experience thereafter. It grew by leaps and bounds until its
confines were measured by the Atlantic and the Pacific, the
Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi from a
5
6 Washington and Lincoln
boundary became a bisector. Its position was assured by the
death grapple at Lundy's Lane; on the decks of the frigate Con-
stitution; behind the cotton bales and sugar barrels at New Or-
leans. Thereafter it was fain to sow its wild oats ; consequently
it behaved badly in '46 and '47 in Mexico. Lastly, it stood upon
its feet and fought successfully for its very existence in '61 and
'65, in the longest, the most costly and the most terrible of mod-
ern wars.
To-day, before the wondering nations, it faces the future with
a confidence, an assurance, begot of the past. Yet no one may
say what the years may bring to it, or what it may bring to the
years, in the days that are to come.
History is usually but the record of events. The chronicler
goes from crisis to crisis. The story of a people is epitomized
in the lives of its great men. The mind leaps in succession from
figure to figure. Yet this is but half of history. Great men are
the products of their time, crises the culminating points of slow-
moving persistent forces; as the water swells inward from the
sea in long undulations scarcely noticed until the crest of the
wave breaks, flashes into sudden foam and is gone.
With a full consciousness of this mighty, determinative un-
dercurrent, it is yet difficult to disassociate history from the
crisis and from the men who dominate it, or failed. It is the
white cap that catches the eye when the heaving of the deep
passes unnoticed. It is the light that shines in the darkness that
discloses the nature of the surrounding midnight. This is the
use of the study of crisis and man; by it we are led to deeper
things hidden from superficial glance.
Disregarding for this argument the greater fields of litera-
Washington and Lincoln 7
ture, art and science, with no disparagement of their importance
— God forbid ! — we confine our attention to men of affairs.
Among the ancient Hebrews stand Moses the Law-giver and
Paul the Saint. Rise in our minds at the name of Greece, Peri-
cles, chief of her statesmen ; Alexander, greatest apostle of her
progress ; Leonidas, high exemplar of her courage. Rome with
her two thousand years of history recalls Caesar, typifying her
ambition; Brutus, her patriotism; Augustus, her empery.
Charlemagne, the unifier; Richelieu, the statesman, Napoleon
the lawgiver, appear for France ; Frederick, creator of the king-
dom, Bismarck, founder of the empire, for Germany; Czar
Peter and Empress Catherine for Russia ; Gregory the Seventh,
that Hildebrand of Canossa, for Italy; Charles V. and Christo-
pher Columbus for Spain. Nearer our own, we bare our heads
before that stern Ironside, Cromwell, and that sailor of sailors,
Nelson, for England. We bow lowest of all in homage to the
greatest patriot, the noblest character of the first sixteen cen-
turies of our era, William the Silent, of storm-beaten Nether-
lands.
Then we turn to America. The men we have enumerated are
those that have stamped themselves upon five thousand years of
history. It might be unfair to expect that in one century and a
quarter the new nation could produce any fit for inclusion in
that brilliant category. Yet it has done so. My mind dwells to-
day upon two names, which can never be disregarded by any who
strive to enumerate the small score of the world's supreme —
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln!
It has been the fashion among those who have been privileged
to address you upon successive commemorations on this historic
field, to dwell upon the local happenings, the history of events.
7
8 Washington and Lincoln
The account of the ragged, destitute, hungry men at Valley
Forge, freezing, bleeding in the snow, yet holding on, has been
repeated many times and oft. And well it may be; for such a
story of deathless heroism it is difficult to parallel in the annals
of nations. The men of Valley Forge can never be too highly
praised, their heroism too largely dwelt upon. Here they over-
came victory. Here they defeated defeat. Here they founded
an heritage for, and gave an example to, succeeding generations.
But I have deliberately chosen to fix my attention this morn-
ing rather upon the man than upon the men. And I have broad-
ened the scope of my remarks. Valley Forge stands for the
supreme struggle of the Revolution. The place is national, there-
fore, nay, it is epochal in universal history. In my judgment
the cause of American independence was settled here rather than
on any other battlefield in the war. Surviving this winter its
future might be delayed, but it was assured. For man here
fought against nature. He had to oppose his feeble powers not
to men who differed from him only in degree of strength or capa-
city, but to those immutable laws which bring the heat in sum-
mer and the cold in winter, which produce the thirst pang and
the hunger grip. Against these the highest human courage usu-
ally avails nothing. Before these man breaks and falters. So
did not our forefathers in the snow.
The ambition of Napoleon was finally buried on the ice-heaped
plains of Muscovy; the genius of liberty lived, it grew, it thrived
at Valley Forge. Therefore, from the long-roll at Lexington to
the grounding arms at Yorktown, the supreme incident of the
American Revolution is the winter at Valley Forge.
Happy is that great commonwealth, Pennsylvania, keystone
of the mighty federal arch, which includes within its borders
such hallowed ground; for, as I have said elsewhere and to this
Washington and Lincoln 9
splendid assemblage, no spot on earth — not the plain of Mara-
then, nor the pass of Sempach, nor the Place of the Bastile, nor
the dykes of Holland, nor the moors of England — is so sacred in
the history of the struggle for human liberty as are the hills of
Valley Forge.
You will bear with me, I am sure, if I take a long leap through
the years and call your attention to another fact which justly
fills us as children of Pennsylvania with a double pride; that
within our borders is a second spot hallowed by the blood of men,
of equal importance and of equal interest in our history and in
the history of the world with this. That sacred field lies to the
westward where rise the slopes of Gettysburg.
At Valley Forge it was determined whether or not the Repub-
lic should die in its childhood; at Gettysburg it was settled
whether or not the Republic should exist in its manhood. As in
the winter of '76 the opponents of liberty put forth their greatest
efforts, seconded by the bitter circumstance of nature, to stifle
the new idea, and failed ; so in '63 the Confederacy reached the
"high topgallant" of its fortunes when brave Armistead fell be-
fore the Pennsylvania soldiers on Cemetery Ridge. There were
five years of varying conflict after Valley Forge, and two years
of bloody fighting after Gettysburg, but in both cases it was but
the ebbing of a tide.
The man who stands to us for the heroism at Valley Forge is
George Washington ; the man who stands to us for the supreme
event at Gettysburg is Abraham Lincoln. At first glance no two
men could be more dissimilar, yet the first is the cause of the
second, the second the complement of the first. For to George
Washington and Valley Forge are due Abraham Lincoln and
Gettysburg. In history they can never be disassociated. This
is a contrast, a comparison and a consequence.
9
10 Washington and Lincoln
The struggle that has been going on in the world since the
days primeval has been a struggle for human liberty. Viewed
from the nearer point this fact has usually been uncompre-
hended. The baser passions of humanity, the ambition of kings,
the love of women, the pride of potentates, the covetousness of
states, aye, even the claims of religion, have precipitated wars;
and the results have often seemed in accord with such concep-
tions, methods and aims. But he who reads history aright —
"that power charged with the promulgation of the judgment of
God upon the pride of man" — will see that in the larger total
throughout the ages things have worked together for good.
Oftentimes the conqueror who has defied God's laws and minis-
tered to his own ambition has been made, despite himself, the
avatar of a new dispensation, the tyrant has brought liberty in
his train.
In every age there have lived men who were ahead of their
times, who have nobly perished in a Herculean effort to drag to
some higher level the sluggish mass. And other men, sometimes
lesser, sometimes greater, upon their failures have builded suc-
cess. Rare indeed has there been a fortuitous concurrence of
time and mass and man.
One of the greatest of the liberators was Cromwell. He could
strike down injustice, he could kill a tyrant, but he could not
build a structure which would outlast his own personal influ-
ence. The death of the Protector brought back that contempti-
ble fribble Charles II. Brutus could remove Imperial Caesar,
simply to make way for the more imperial Augustus. Alexan-
der could bring a vast empire under his sway, which fell to
pieces by its own weight when his death, in a drunken brawl at
thirty-three, relaxed the welding hand. Napoleon could incar-
nate the spirit of the French Revolution — that thing of noble
Washington and Lincoln 11
sentiment and atrocious deed — and, when opportunity and his
genius put the world at his feet, could grasp at omnipotence un-
til the mere human frame, unable to sustain such a divine attri-
bute, gave way, and the man ate out his own heart, an exile at
St. Helena.
The greatest before our own nation gave the world assurance
of a man was William of Orange, the Dutch patriot and states-
man who stands next to Washington. Saevis Tranquillus in Un-
dis! Rarely has there ever been such a people, such a leader,
such an opportunity and such a success as in the Netherlands. It
is good for the world that he and they lived and wrought as they
did. Yet to-day kings and queens reign in the country for whose
independence he fought alike the ravaging sea and the ravening
Spaniard!
When what has been called the greatest document ever struck
off at one time by human hand, the Declaration of Independence,
was spread before the eyes of startled Europe; in spite of the
age-long struggle, human liberty — civic, political and religious
liberty, that is — was in most countries a philosophic dream.
Even that sturdy little Helvetian confederacy was under the
domination of an oligarchy as narrow and as supreme as that
which had swayed for a thousand years the destinies of Venice.
There was liberty nowhere on the surface. There was a passion
for it everywhere in human hearts.
Then it pleased God to bring together in America such a group
of men as few countries have ever associated at one time within
their borders. James Otis, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas
Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Robert Morris
and Benjamin Franklin, to think and plan ; Nathaniel Greene,
Israel Putnam, Anthony Wayne, Daniel Morgan, John Stark,
Francis Marion, John Paul Jones, Richard Montgomery, Henry
11
12 Washington and Lincoln
Lee, Baron De Kalb, Marquis de Lafayette, and in his earlier
career, Benedict Arnold, to do and dare; and as the unifying
spirit not only to direct, but also to lead, and thus to stand su-
preme among them all — George Washington. Providence also
put a blundering fool upon a throne and surrounded him with
venal counsellors and incompetent soldiers, to equalize the strug-
gle of the few against the many. Thus the Revolution was
fought and won. Thus the country was established.
There is one significant feature of it. It was fought, won and
established under the leadership and guidance I might say of an
oligarchy, certainly of an aristocracy. We had no official aris-
tocracy in the country, but unofficially there were well-estab-
lished differences in rank even in democratic New England,
where students were placed in Harvard College in accordance
with the social status of their fathers ! With few exceptions the
soldiers and statesmen of the Revolution were, in the old-fash-
ioned sense of the word, of the degree of gentlemen. They came
from the best society of their day. True, they could have done
nothing had there not been that fortuitous concurrence of ideas
and the ideal as represented by the people and the few. True,
they could have accomplished little had not the time been ripe for
such leadership as they could offer; had not the idea of liberty
been already inwrought in the minds of the people by the slow
process of the ages. The understanding of this point is of great
importance in tracing our future development. It was the aris-
tocracy of the land to which was due the establishment of the
government. Nor by this do I minimize the popular contribu-
tion to the work. That was necessary. Nothing could have been
accomplished without the people. But without the leadership
mentioned nothing could have been done by the people. They
were not yet capable of evolving a leader themselves.
12
Washington and Lincoln 13
There never was a kinglier man in any land, at any time, than
George Washington. Wherever such a character might have ap-
peared his career would have been a marked one. If he had not
been born to the purple he would have achieved it. No man is
independent of opportunity. For if, as Shakespeare says, its
guilt is great, so also is its virtue; but if ever a man were inde-
pendent of opportunity, it was George Washington.
Such an assemblage of qualities as he exhibited has rarely, if
ever, been seen before in a single man; yet he was not a demi-
god. The blood burned in his veins as prodigally as it beats in
our own. He was full of the joy of life. His passions were as
strong as those of any man. But his character was remarkable
for a purity, an honesty, a dignity, a sanity, a restraint, a self-
control, an ability and a courage, at which succeeding ages have
marveled. The testimony to his qualities is abundant and unim-
peachable. In mind and mien he was more royal than the king.
In my judgment, had he so desired, he might have been the
founder of an empire and a dynasty, instead of the Father of a
Republic.
In the earlier history of the struggle for human liberty we find
that the successive steps were always taken upon the initiative
of the great, the gently-born, the well-to-do. Hampden was of
the rank of gentleman, as was Cromwell, although he is nearer
to an exception to this statement than any other. The Barons of
Runnymede wresting the Magna Charta were the high aristoc-
racy of England, and the people without them would have had
no power to move the ineffable John. The early leaders of the
French Revolution — as Mirabeau ! — were of the same high class.
Not for a long time did men like Marat and Barere come to the
fore. The American Revolution was engineered and directed
13
14 Washington and Lincoln
and assured, I reaffirm, by the aristocracy, the best blood of the
country.
What then ! Having achieved their task, Washington and his
fellows deliberately put liberty and its maintenance into the
hands of the people. In the very nature of things, by the very
plans which they made, by the Constitution itself, the whole
power, the authority of the government, the entire responsibility
for its administration and for its preservation, were taken out
of the hands of the few and put into the hands of the many.
It is difficult to estimate the importance of that action. There
was no precedent for it. Experience had no word to say concern-
ing its feasibility. The boldness of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence was surpassed by the boldness of the Constitution. The
one had stated that all men were created free and equal, that
government derived its just powers from the consent of the gov-
erned; the other showed that men had the courage to stand by
their assertions. Words are lacking to emphasize the sublime
faith and the noble courage of the Constitution-makers — again
the nation's best! Coldly considered it was an experiment of
such magnitude that we stand aghast even in backward contem-
plation of it. It might have been such a failure !
It is probable that the experiment never would have succeeded
if the transition had been sharp and abrupt between the custom-
ary and the proposed method of government. The habit of cen-
turies was still strong in humanity. During the earlier years of
the Republic the people, timid in their own powers, committed
its destinies to the same class under whose leadership had been
won its liberty. The earlier Congresses exhibited a degree of
wealth, station and culture which no succeeding assemblage of
legislators has paralleled.
14
Washington and Lincoln 15
But the people learned rapidly and their work justified the
trust reposed in them. Among themselves the genius for leader-
ship grew and flourished. The first President who came from
the people was Andrew Jackson. In character, in service, in
ability, he stands midway between Washington and Lincoln,
falling short of both, yet worthy of mention with either. What
he might have been, given the opportunity of the other two, is a
question which it were idle to discuss. No such crises ever con-
fronted him in his career as Washington faced or as Lincoln
dominated. The people had much to learn. Much in his career,
as their representative, is the subject of merited censure; but the
praise outweighs the blame.
In the first ninety years of its history the Republic had demon-
strated its right to existence. Its course, save for the blot on its
escutcheon involved in the unjust war with Mexico, had been
highly honorable among nations. It was not likely that any for-
eign foe would ever be able to overwhelm it or impair the stabil-
ity of its institutions. With a constantly increasing success had
been demonstrated the feasibility of a government administered
by, and for the benefit of the people. The event had justified the
wisdom of the founders. The world on every hand looked on and
took lessons. And well it might. No single fact in history has
been so pregnant with happiness and welfare to mankind as the
demonstration of democratic government which we have af-
forded. The consequences are not yet exhausted.
The political course of the world's history since 1776 has not
been backward. Some of us may live to see the day when Russia
will become a representative government, when the absolutism
of Germany will be an archaic fiction, and when kings will be by
the grace of the people, if indeed they be at all. Some day all
civilized nations, whatever their outward form of government,
15
16 Washington and Lincoln
will be as free as we are, as England or as France are, to-day.
For this the world may thank the United States and its
makers.
Now a country which may have strength enough to fight vali-
antly for its existence against external foes, may yet carry with-
in itself the seeds of its own destruction. In 1861 came the final
trial as to whether or not the experiment that was begun by
Washington was finally to come to an inglorious end. Without
passion or prejudice, — certainly it is too late for that now —
without any feeling for any section of our country but love and
devotion, without going into the causes of the Civil War; looking
only to the fact that upon its success or failure depended the ex-
istence of the United States, realizing that if one section could
separate from the main body upon aggrievement, so also could
another, and that one single separation probably meant the solu-
tion of all organic coherence and the substitution of a number of
jealous, circumscribed, petty and insignificant States for a great
homogeneous nation, thus involving the utter downfall of the
great idea of the founders of the Republic and of the Constitu-
tion; we can realize the importance of the conservation of the
United States as a nation.
This was second only — and perhaps I am not right in using
the word second — to its establishment. The aristocracy of the
country had founded a nation and had committed its govern-
ment to the people. No longer did aristocracy dominate. No
longer does it dominate to-day — I use the words in the old sense
of degree; in the long run the aristocracy of talent and character
will always dominate in the Republic and elsewhere. Washing-
ton had done his part. Would the people be equal in the crisis to
the obligations of their position?
Who is responsible for the successful conduct of the war
16
Washington and Lincoln 17
for the Union? To whom, under God, is due the perpetuation
of the Republic? Many men took great part, many men deserve
well of the nation. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Farragut and
Meade ; Stanton, Sumner, Chase and Seward. Their services are
as nothing compared to those of Abraham Lincoln. And he was
a man of the people. In every sense of the word, mark it, a man
of the people ! The people themselves had brought forth a man
capable of leadership. Out of the dust of earth did God make
this man in His own image. Washington opened the way for
Lincoln, and Lincoln trod successfully upon the path.
As Valley Forge brings up Washington, so Gettysburg brings
up Lincoln. There was no battle, no clash of arms, at Valley
Forge. It was a struggle on the part of Washington and his men
for existence in a winter. Lincoln was not on the field of Gettys-
burg when the war drum throbbed above it and the blood of men
was poured upon it; but whoever mentions Gettysburg thinks of
Lincoln, as whoever mentions Valley Forge thinks of Washing-
ton. For Lincoln said things at Gettysburg of which the fight-
ing was but the expression, and Washington did things at Valley
Forge of which the Declaration of Independence was the record.
Dissimilar I said these men were. Washington, born of the
world's great; the richest, the best bred, the most important, the
most influential man of his time. Lincoln, so humble, so obscure
in his origin that it can with difficulty be traced. Washington,
with every grace and charm and characteristic that marks the
highbred gentleman ; Lincoln, with few or none of these things.
One a prince, the other a peasant.
It is idle to speculate as to which was the greater man. Both
were necessary, both were complete, both did their allotted work
absolutely.
Washington's character is not complex. It is simple and easy
17
18 Washington and Lincoln
to understand — and not the less great and admirable on that ac-
count. Be it remarked in passing, that he was no English coun-
try gentleman, as has been alleged, but as good an American as
Franklin or as Lincoln himself.
Lincoln was a creature of contradictions. In person so homely
as when pictured almost to repel, but with an appeal so powerful
and inexplainable that in personal contact his ugliness was for-
gotten. Perhaps men near him caught a glimpse of his soul, un-
consciously revealed. A man full of that quaint humor we love
to call American, yet over his face a tinge of sadness as if tra-
gedy peeped from behind the mask of comedy. A man whose
stories were sometimes not repeatable, yet of a deeply religious
nature, a piety as fervent as it was uncommon, a trust as per-
vading as it was sincere. An unlettered man, yet whose beauti-
ful words will live as long as the language of Shakespeare and
the English Bible shall endure. A man with many failings, who
made many mistakes ; a man with the stain of the soil whence he
sprang clinging to him; yet with qualities that enabled him to
speak to his fellow men with the foresight of a prophet, to accom-
plish the impossible with the powers of a king, to pursue his duty
with the serenity of a saint.
As I look back upon our American history, as I view side by
side these two gigantic men towering among their contempo-
raries, each ready in the day of need, I break forth in the words
of the ancient prophet, "What hath God wrought?" The one to
found and build a Republic, to give it a priceless heritage into a
people's hands; the other to rise in the crowded hour and say in
the words of a greater than man, "I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. . . . Those that thou gavest me I
have kept and none of them is lost."
Washington and Lincoln 19
Oh, flag that floats above us, thank God that from thy blaz-
onry never hath been torn a single star !
As I draw from both these Homeric men the outward seeming,
they grow more like. I seem to discern an equal patience, an
equal courage, an equal sanity, an equal abnegation of self, an
equal desire for the welfare of their fellow men, an equal resolu-
tion that freedom shall have her opportunity here in the land
they both loved so well. In God's great Valhalla where men meet
face to face, each man known for what he is, I see the great noble
and the great commoner with clasped hands — friends. One for-
ever, inseparably joined. Named together on our diptychs of
the dead who yet will never die. For it was Washington who
made Lincoln. For it was Lincoln who assured Washington.
Gentlemen, so much for the past. What of the future? Can
we unlock it with "the past's blood-rusted key"? On the thres-
old of a new century stands the country of Washington and
Lincoln. The United States is menaced by threatening condi-
tions, confronted by difficult problems, weighted with grave re-
sponsibilities, external and internal. These are the circum-
stances of success. To struggle is to live. The law of battle is
the law of life. Well might Alexander weep with no more
worlds to conquer, for then began his decadence. The country
whose need fails to engross its highest citizenship in its prob-
lems, in which the people do not cheerfully give their best con-
sideration to its questions, is a country already in a state of de-
cay. Thank God for all our burdens ! By them we prove our
manhood.
For one hundred years we were content to expand peacefully
within our natural limits. Between the seas we reigned su-
preme. In the twinkling of an eye we found ourselves projected,
almost without intent, into the sphere of world politics. Not
20 Washington and Lincoln
that we were in a state of complete isolation before. As with in-
dividuals so with nations entire isolation is not possible; as men
live among men, so nations must live among nations, sustaining
certain definite and well-understood relations with one another,
whatever may be the individual desire to be solitary, alone.
But our concerns with foreign powers and affairs had been re-
mote and not of especial importance.
To-day we have become a factor in the politics of the world.
In the Chancellories of Europe the leading question in nearly
every contingency, — not purely local, — that arises is, "What
will the United States do?" Our American diplomacy which has
honesty for its finesse and truth for its subtlety — where neither
has been in vogue — takes the lead in public questions. With
neither army nor navy comparable in size to that of other na-
tions,— although so far as they go unsurpassed — we are still the
greatest single factor to be reckoned with.
We have said to one-half the world, "This half is ours. Keep
out of it!" Therefore, we have made ourselves responsible for
the welfare, the well-being and more especially the well-doing,
of that of which we have assumed to be the warden. How are we
discharging that trust? So as to retain the respect of older
powers, on the one hand, and the affection of those newer nations
of which we have assumed the guardianship on the other, or not?
Our flag floats in the sunrise on one hemisphere in Porto Rico
at the same hour that it is gilded by the sunset in the Philippines
on the other. And the end is not yet. We are about to tear
asunder the barrier which has separated ocean from ocean since
God called the dry land from the deep. This is our position
among the weak and the strong. What is to be the end of our
expansion? Shall we go on? Shall we stand still? Shall we
acquire? Shall we retain?
20
Washington and Lincoln 21
Never in history did a nation say as we did to Cuba, "Go, you
are free !" Shall we say that some day to our little brown breth-
ren across the Pacific? Shall we train and try them for that end?
Shall we grasp at power with greedy rapacious hands? Shall
we give way to vaulting ambition which shall by and by o'erleap
itself and carry us down in its fall? That depends upon you, oh,
Sons of the Revolution, for in that name, in larger sense, may I
not include all the citizens of the Republic?
Shall the Republic continue to stand for honesty and integrity
and the fear of God among the nations? Shall there be liberty
wherever the flag flies, or else the withdrawal of the flag? Shall
we stand eternally for what Washington founded and Lincoln
preserved? Or shall we do some other thing? That depends up-
on you.
There come to our harbors every day a horde of people from
the Old World, following that westward moving star of empire,
seeking their fortunes in this land of equal opportunity for all,
of special privilege for none. What shall we do with them?
What shall be our position with regard to immigration? How
much of such an influx can our people assimilate? What quan-
tity of food of that character can the nation digest? How many
foreign people can we turn into good American citizens without
lowering our immortal standards? How far shall we shut the
open door? What restriction shall we place upon our welcome?
That depends upon you.
These are external problems. There are internal ones, per-
haps of greater moment and harder to solve. Within our bor-
ders are millions of black people, an alien race whose mental
habit and temperament differ from ours even as we are physi-
cally at variance. What shall we do with these people? Believe
me, Appomattox simply changed the form of the question. It
22 Washington and Lincoln
settled another question, not that one. Emancipation solved one
problem only to introduce another. That problem confronts us
with a constantly increasing demand, a demand full of menace,
fraught with appalling possibilities. There appears as yet no
solution of it. Education, we fatuously cry, but education is not
the universal resolvent. We can not educate away the racial
difference. The welfare of this country depends on the retention
of power by the white race. White and black in blend make
gray, the ruination of the positive and valuable in both. How
shall this be a white man's country with a white man's govern-
ment and yet a fit home for the black man? What are we going
to do about this question? That depends upon you. From you
must come the prophet to show us the way.
The principle of combination is universally accepted in the
affairs of men. Consolidation, concentration, are the conditions
of success. How far may this consolidation and concentration
in the form of capital, on the one hand, and of men on the other,
be brought about? And when brought about what relation shall
they sustain to each other? What shall we do with the trusts,
what shall we do with the unions? That depends upon you.
Life without law is impossible. Laws are man's expression
of his reading of the will of God. Happy is the state in which the
laws are not only adequate but observed. How shall we check
the general disregard of law which is so singular a reversion to
conditions long past when every man was a law unto himself?
Long ago the right of private war was done away with. There
is a backward swing of the pendulum of public opinion. Men
have forgot that vengeance is God's and punishment belongs to
the state. How shall we reassert effectively our determination
that the law shall be administered only by those whom we have
charged with that solemn, that vital duty?
Washington and Lincoln 23
The daily histories of the times, the newspapers, ring with
charge and countercharge of political corruption in city, state
and nation. We would fain believe that much of the hue and
cry is false, but we know that a terrible proportion of it is true.
The best blood of the nation is strangely indifferent to the de-
mands of the hour. For good government there should be a
proper blending of Washington and Lincoln, the one represent-
ing education, culture, refinement, the other the great beating
heart of the people. It will not do to trust to the low, the ignor-
ant and the venal, the issues of life and government. Republics
in history have tended to become oligarchies. Shall we reverse
the work of Washington and Lincoln and submit ourselves un-
resisting, indifferent, to an oligarchy of bosses?
And there are social problems as pressing. The sanctity of
home life, the holiness of the marriage relation, is everywhere
invaded. The social unit, the family, is being sundered into dis-
orderly atoms by the growing evil of divorce. In it we are strik-
ing at the children.
There is a growing inclination to excess on the part of the rich
and the well-to-do which is fatal to national honor, to national
honesty. Frugality is to a democracy what modesty is to a
woman. Extravagance is an attribute of empire. The follies of
men in high station are vices when they are translated by men of
less degree. There is a tendency in our midst to become intoxi-
cated not only with our position in the world, but with our inter-
nal prosperity. How shall we check it?
Publicity is the safeguard of a Republic. Concealment is the
essence of despotism. How, while conserving the freedom of the
press, shall we also conserve the freedom of the private citizen,
so that his personal affairs with which the public have no con-
23
24 Washington and Lincoln
cern shall not be exploited and misrepresented by unscrupulous
newspapers?
These, gentlemen and comrades, are a few of the things which
call to the patriotism of today. Love of country is usually asso-
ciated with the bullet and the bayonet. The call of the flag above
our heads is not merely a summons to war, it is a demand upon
every citizen at every moment to do his civic duty with the
same devotion, the same courage, with which he would answer
an appeal to arms. It takes more resolution, of a higher if of a
different order, to grapple with the questions which I have so
briefly outlined, than simply to follow a leader or even to lead
ourselves in the high places of the field.
In what did Washington's greatness lie? In what did Lin-
coln's greatness lie? I would not affirm that they were supreme
above all others in any particular field. Washington, brilliant
soldier that he was, was not the greatest captain that ever set
a squadron in the field. Lincoln, profoundly politic and far-
seeing as he was, was not the greatest statesmen that ever out-
lined a policy. Indeed it would be hard to point to any one thing
in which these two unchallenged might claim the palm.
They were great because in each of them was blended a con-
geries of qualities which made up a personality, not superna-
tural or superhuman, as many would fain urge, but a person-
ality far beyond the common lot; a personality that was honest,
that was pure, that was unselfish, that was able, that was
devoted to mankind, to the country in which they both served; a
personality which chose duty and service for its watchwords.
When you analyze great men, as a rule you will find that their
greatness lies in that mysterious thing we call personality,
which is made up of, and is yet disassociated from, special
talents. Many talents go to make genius. To be great there
24
Washington and Lincoln 25
must be balance and proportion. Without these the most bril-
liant achievement lacks permanence.
We cannot all be great statesmen, great soldiers, great admin-
istrators— what you will, but we may all be great patriots. We
can each one of us so direct these qualities which God has be-
stowed upon us as to become a personality whose sole aim and
end is the betterment of men and the service of the state. It is
not idle for me to bid you strive to follow the example of Wash-
ington or of Lincoln. There is no example too high for us to
struggle to attain, not even the example of the Cross.
Like the ancient Roman, I do not despair of the Republic. God
mercifully in the past hath preserved us. Sure His hand hath
led us through valleys and shadows. He hath sustained us in the
hour of gloom and defeat. He hath restrained us in the day of
triumph and success. Humbly am I confident that He will not
desert us now. He hath more work for us to do.
But we may not trust all the burdens of our future upon Him.
As the work of salvation in the individual is a co-operation be-
tween God and man, so the work of salvation in a nation is the
co-operation of the same Power and the people. Let us here
consecrate ourselves anew to the service of mankind in the spirit
of our forefathers. In Lincoln's spirit: Let us here highly
resolve that if we, individually or collectively, can bring it about,
this government of the people and by the people, and for, not
merely the United States, but all humanity as well, which looks
to us as the light of liberty throughout the ages, shall not perish
from the face of the earth.
And by the grace of God, and in the name of Washington and
Lincoln, oh, my countrymen, let us rise in our manhood and
seize the glorious opportunities which are ours for the taking in
this country of the free.
Cyrus Townsend Brady.
THE NATION'S WAIL
A Discourse
Delivered in the First
Presbyterian Church of Detroit
ON SABBATH, THE 16th OF APRIL, 1865,
THE DAY AFTER RECEIVING THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE
BRUTAL MURDER OF
PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
BY A BRUTAL ASSASSIN
By Rev. George Duffield
Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Detroit
DETROIT:
ADVERTISER AND TRIBUNE PRINT
1865
Tarrytown, N. Y.
REPRINTED
WILLIAM ABBATT
1921
Being Extra Number 77 of the Magazine of History with Notes and Queries
Detroit, April 17th, 1865.
Rev. and Dear Sir, — The undersigned, who listened with the greatest interest to your
discourse on the death of President Lincoln, delivered in the First Presbyterian Church on
the 16th inst, request a copy for publication. Believing we express the wishes of the entire
congregation, we await your reply.
Very respectfully, your obedient servants,
Wm. A. Howard,
Geo. W. Hoffman,
Jacob S. Farrand,
W. W. Wheaton,
Rev. Geo. Duffield, D.D.
And many others.
N. D. Stebbins
David Cooper,
Louis Benfey,
A. Sheley,
To the Hon. W. A. Howard, Geo. W. Hoffman, W. W. Wheaton, N. D. Stebbins, Louis
Benfey, and others.
Gentlemen, — I cheerfully furnish the manuscript you request, and will be happy, if, at
your wish, you can make it subserve the interests of our beloved country, in any degree, rf
this hour of sore distress and terrible calamity
Very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
DISCOURSE
And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 2 Chron., 35 : 23-25.
THE nation is deluged with woe. Our patriotic, virtuous
and devoted President has fallen by the hand of the assas-
sin. In the midst of our rejoicing over victories, and the
crushing of rebellion, from the loftiest pinnacle of our joy we
are hurled down into the depths of heart-breaking anguish.
The firm and faithful hand that held the reins of government
lies cold and motionless in death. The heart that never ceased
or tired in its throbbings of love and zeal, and heroic consecra-
tion to the safety, interests, honor and happiness of our be-
loved country, no longer wells out the gushing streams of its
intense, unselfish and ardent affections. He for whom the na-
tion has so long and ardently prayed, whose appeals to the
hearts of all Christian people for their sympathy with him in
the midst of his solemn and heavy responsibilities, and for
their remembrance of him at a throne of grace — has gone for-
ever beyond the reach or need of our supplications. He has
passed away without a note of warning, like a brilliant sun, in
the midst of his glory, from the very zenith of its splendor.
The hearts of millions, through whose loves and hopes and
lofty exultations, but yesterday his name and fame had circu-
lated with an all-pervading, animating and invigorating force,
now droop and languish, sicken and faint. The nation weeps
and clothes itself with sackcloth and ashes. From the palaces
of the rich and the great, through all the habitations of the
land, in every cottage and lonely chamber of the broken-
hearted, the wail of grief ascends to Heaven. Like a thunder-
peal of terrific lightning, a bolt of desolating fury has burst
over us, as from a clear sky, and felled to the dust the idol of
29
4 Discourse
his country. Another Josiah has been smitten by the mur-
derous weapon of well-directed malice, and lamentations over-
spread the land.
What shall we say? What can we say, while weeping inlne
amazement and bewilderment of our grief, but that God hath
done it? His hand arrested not the arm of the assassin. No
angel messenger was dispatched to avert the fatal shot.
Known to Omniscience was the plot of hellish treason, and the
instruments of its accomplishment. Yet His providence, which
could have easily prevented the fatal result, averted it not. "Is
there evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?" A holy
and righteous God allowed it for His own wise and holy ends.
What remains for us, and what can we else do, than to accept
it as of His ordering, and humbly, prayerfully, and penitently
improve the lesson, which the infinite wisdom and adorable
sovereignty of Him who doeth His will in the armies of Heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, designs to teach us by
this overwhelming calamity?
I. God has found it needful to mingle judgment with
mercy. The aspect of terror thus assumed by His providence,
need not appal. For judgment is His strange work, but
mercy is His delight. Dark and tempestuous may be the
clouds that gather and threaten at such a time around his
throne, and seem sufficient to drive us to despair. But that
throne is occupied by "the Lamb that was slain from the
foundation of the world." The Lord Jesus Christ, who "loved
us and died for us," is "the Lord God Omnipotent," in whose
hands are entrusted all authority and power in Heaven and in
earth. It is He that rules in providence and guides the destiny
of nations. Our safety and interests as a people, could be
lodged in no better hands. For there is no human heart that
30
Discourse 5
loves like Jesus — so intensely, so persistently, so efficaciously.
It is alike our duty, and the means of our security, to accept
and bow submissively beneath the strokes of this, His sore
judgment. "Be wise now, therefore, oh, ye kings! be instruct-
ed, ye judges of the earth ! kiss the Son, lest He be angry and
ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little"
— i. e., shall suddenly blaze forth. "Blessed are all they that
put their trust in Him." Ps. 2, 11. His throne can never be
subverted. His life is forever beyond the reach of foes. His
administration is the salvation of the earth. If we link our
destiny, as individuals or a nation, with the rights, supremacy,
and interests of His throne — all is well! However terrible
may be His judgments, they shall prove themselves but the
ministers He sends, to teach us righteousness, and help us rear
the bastions needed for our national security.
II. A terrible crisis has been precipitated on our country,
that calls for the most solemn consideration of every one of us.
Elate with joyous prospects of peace, our hearts were already
indulging their fond felicitations, which possessed a zest of
peculiar tenderness and power, in the thought that the great
and noble soul of our beloved President was in sympathetic
fellowship with the masses. We caught the inspiration of his
joy; and imagination painted a glorious future near at hand
for our land, quickly to develop itself under the guidance of his
fostering wisdom, and fraternal counsels and care. We grate-
fully hailed for him a period of relief from necessary burdens,
and, with the end of warfare, began to welcome the rich bene-
fits to be secured by his statesmanship and common sense, his
vigilance and honesty, his disinterestedness, and absorption
in his country's welfare. But suddenly the scene is changed.
The heavens gather darkness. We sigh and groan, and in
agony exclaims: "Oh! what is to be our future? Shall treason
6 Discourse
and conspiracy gather strength? Shall the frenzy of partisan
passion rise like the driving whirlwind? Shall confusion of
counsel, distraction in the administration of government, and
change and conflicts of policy, and ambitious factions bewilder
the people? Has the great balance wheel in our machinery
been broken and hurled from its place, to bring on the
terrible crash and chaos of our destruction?" These, and such
like thoughts and inquiries, agitate the public mind. Every
one feels that, compared with all the past crises of the nation's
history, within the last four years, we have reached the great-
est, most portentous, most trying and most perilous to the
unity and stability of the nation. How much do we need the
assurance, on good and solid ground, that, like all the past,
this most terrible crisis will prove that public virtue, and the
cohesiveness of our Government will be abundantly adequate
to the present emergency !
The event we this day mourn is a novelty in our history.
Never has the land been stained with the blood of the Chief
Magistrate, murdered by the hand of the assassin. Other
lands have thus suffered. A similar case is referred to in
the context.
Josiah was one of the most illustrious kings of Judah. He
was a good and great man/ The fear of God from early youth
controlled him and, through faith in His word and providence,
he was rendered eminently successful in the administration of
his government. The nation prospered greatly under it. Its
military resources and civil and religious institutions were
successfully developed by him, so that his country became
eminently prosperous. He was honored and beloved by his
people universally. But, in the providence and allotments of
32
Discourse 7
God, he fell on the field of battle, in the splendor of his glory.
"And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah."
We, too, lament our illustrious head, fallen among the slain.
But the fact that he was murdered by the assassin's dastardly
hand gives poignancy to our grief.
The nearest parallel event, however, in history that we
recall to mind at the moment was the murder of William the
Silent, the Prince of Orange. "It is difficult to imagine," says
the historian, "a more universal disaster than the one thus
brought about by the hand of a single obscure fanatic. Habit,
necessity, and the natural gifts of the man, had combined to
invest him, at last, with an authority which seemed more than
human. There was such general confidence in his sagacity,
courage and purity that the nation had come to think with
his brain and act with his hand. It was natural that, for an
instant, there should be a feeling as of absolute and helpless
paralysis." Yet did the united Netherlands survive the shock
administered by the working machinery of the government of
Philip, which adopted assassination as an engine of its power.
But the contest between freedom and despotism, religion and
fanaticism, was irreconcilable. Never in human history was
a more poignant and universal sorrow for the death of any
individual. The despair was, for a brief season, absolute; but
it was soon succeeded by more lofty sentiments. It seemed,
after they had laid their hero in the tomb, as though his
spirit still hovered above the nation which he had loved so
well, and was inspiring it with a portion of his own energy
and wisdom. By the blessing of Providence it survived and
triumphed, and shed forth its gleam of glory to enlighten the
world. The same Providence can make a similar crisis in
our history the occasion for still more radiant light to be
poured from us upon the nations of the earth. The lesson
8 Discourse
of the crisis to trust still more firmly in, and triumph
through, the God of our fathers.
III. The event we mourn develops and demonstrates the
horrible malignity of human corruption, to restrain and pun-
ish which a good and just government is bound by every con-
sideration of fidelity to God, and respect for its own safety
and prosperity. As a people, we have of late years lost sight
of the great end and obligation of civil government, designed
of God, as His ordinance, for the punishment of crime and
the promotion of the general good. Law has lost its sacred-
ness. Fanaticism has been substituted for religion. In the
North a spurious self-righteous humanitarianism, claiming
to be wiser and more benevolent than the God of the Bible, has
sympathized with the perpetrators of evil, in the indulgence
of a mawkish and murderous charity, so-called, denouncing
capital punishment, destroying the sanctions of law, and
undermining the authority of government, until the idea of
liberty has become identical with that of licentiousness. Prop-
erty and life are sacrificed with impunity; and a low estimate
is made of human virtue and personal security. Our officers
of justice have extensively become the patrons and promoters
of crime; and the functions of authority are sought to be
discharged by the veriest traitors to the peace and welfare
of society. In the South, the monster iniquity of slavery,
with all its crimes and abominations, interwoven into codes
of law, had blinded the popular mind and besotted the popular
conscience, until with fanatical madness its advocates and
abettors had claimed the sanction of religion, and believed
themselves to be the possessors of a purer Christianity, and
much more consistent and devoted asserters of the inspiration
and authority of the sacred Scriptures. Who can tell the
enormous amount of hideous corruption which has been, on
Discourse 9
either hand, developed in the history of this people, by the aid
of an infidel humanitarianism and a self-applauding ortho-
doxy, alike opposed to a simple, practical, evangelical
Christianity?
In the providence of God, a delirious and maddened con-
spiracy for the overthrow of the Government of the United
States has made an open issue as to the religion professed,
and, for four years, appealed to arms for the decision of the
question of the moral right of slavery, and the sanction of
Christianity for the fanaticism that sought to make it the
cornerstone of a Confederacy, whose history has been stained
with crimes that astound the world, and when fully written
will hand it down to coming generations, branded with in-
delible infamy. Developments of corruption, in the instiga-
tion and conduct of the rebellion by its leaders, have taken
place, beyond description, beyond conception — which, when
the proof already possessed shall blazon forth, will fill nations
with horror. We refer, in part, to the brutalities of their
warfare — the 66,000 of our murdered prisoners of war,
starved to death with deliberate intent; to the worse than sav-
age ferocity displayed in the cruelties inflicted on hundreds and
thousands tortured and slain by their guerrilla bands. But we
refer more immediately to the spirit of demoniac malignity,
and designed systematic assassination, adopted and pursued
by the instigators and leaders of the rebellious conspiracy.
There is strong circumstantial evidence to prove that the
death of President Harrison and of President Taylor, was
secured by poison, administered slowly, in pursuance of a plan
and purpose that no Northern man should ever be President
of the United States. The abortive attempt to poison Presi-
dent Buchanan, and the failure of measures to murder Presi-
dent Lincoln, at or on his way to Washington, are events al-
35
10 Discourse
ready recorded in history. And during the four years of the
rebellion, facts have accumulated, showing that there was no
deed of desperate, malignant crime, that could be perpetrated,
which found not its instruments, and was not stimulated by
the promise of reward from men high in place and influence,
connected with and supporters of the Confederate Govern-
ment. It needed just such a hot-bed as Slavery to force the
monstrous growths of corruption produced by the rebellion.
The St. Albans raiders; the piratical enterprises; the plots of
incendiaries for the conflagration of New York, and other
large cities at the North ; the abortive effort, and plans for the
pillage of our commerce, and the invasion of our own and other
lake cities, by desperate Southern renegades in Canada, have
all been part and parcel of a regular system of measures of
fiendish malice, unknown to the warfare of civilized nations.
The evidence will be forthcoming in due season, of a Satanic
sagacity in appeals to the laws of nature, and discoveries of
science, for the generation and diffusion of pestilence of vari-
ous sorts in our large cities. Scientific and medical professors,
lauded for their benevolence and social worth, have been, and
are still employed, with the countenance and promise of re-
ward by the Confederate authorities — whose names are known
as associated with them — for the importation, from Bermuda
into Washington City, Norfolk and Newbern, of goods artfully
infected with the virus or miasm of the yellow fever, for the
introduction and diffusion of pestilence as an element and
agent of the warfare waged by rebellion. The like experi-
ments have been made for the generation of the small-pox. To
the good providence of God alone is to be referred the escape of
Norfolk and Washington from the deadly scourge of the yel-
low fever, which only succeeded in Newbern. All the elements
and means of destruction that science can furnish have been
Discourse 11
boastfully claimed by maddened bloviaters, as sure to give
success to the rebellion. And the young men of the South have
extensively been trained and incited to deeds of enthusiastic
desperation, as though it were glorious and martyr-like to
sacrifice themselves by deeds of infamous daring and criminal-
ity. The assassination of the President was but the culmina-
tion of this system of diabolical enterprise, steadily, persistent-
ly, and Satanically pursued, notwithstanding frequent failures.
Seldom, if ever, have such developments of corruption been
made in the history of any people, as have been in the rise and
progress of the rebellion that has caused the sacrifice of nearly
half a million lives of our brave and noble citizen soldiers.
Away with all apologists for the "chivalry," and "honor," and
"Christianity" of the Southern conspirators, and their religion,
who have not hesitated, but gloried, in the use of such methods
of revenge for warfare ! The President was not only the hon-
ored functionary of his country, but especially the representa-
tive of the Christian people in it. The cowardly assassination
of such a man, has forever stamped with infamy the State that
gave his assassin birth.
Treason has done bis worst; nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch him further. —He
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off;
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.
IV. Finally, the event we deplore is eminently adapted, and
we think designed, in Providence, to impress deeply the pub-
lic mind with a sense of our danger and obligations as a free
37
12 Discourse
people. Our danger springs not from the nature of our gov-
ernment, or social and political institutions. Never had a peo-
ple so wise, and, in nearly every respect, so well-adjusted a
Constitution and charter of civil rights. It remains unharmed
amid the perils and trials of four eventful years of bloodshed
and agony, and is, in process of being expurgated from the
chief blot that stained its sacred pages. The providence of
God — blessed be His name — has cut the cancer out, and but
few of its baneful roots yet remain for the future and perfect
process of eradication. The nation needs to stand erect in all
the glory of its moral majesty, and say that Slavery shall cease
forever. God grant that this high behest be speedily pro-
claimed !
The providence of God has also placed in the most glaring
light the necessity of vindicating the honor of Government, and
the majesty of Law, by the infliction of retributive justice on
the perpetrators of crime. We have allowed pseudo-philan-
thropists to insult the God of the Bible, and extensively, by
legal enactment, and much more extensively by corrupting
public sentiment, to disannul the death penalty. Murders and
homicides by hundreds and thousands, have been overlooked,
or passed unpunished. Life has been held even less sacred
than property. And now a righteous God, who will not allow
His Constitution to be violated with impunity, has allowed the
murderer's hand, in the face and eyes of the whole country, to
strike down its pure and honest, its noble and patriotic Presi-
dent, and by conspiracy, attempt the destruction of his Prime
Minister, whose lofty statesmanship has shone forth in re-
splendent lustre, and who, like the illustrious Pitt, has towered
in his strength and proved himself ready and mighty in every
emergency — a bulwark invincible against all the jealousy and
insidious opposition of foreign nations. The Lord preserve his
Discourse 13
life, yet periled by the assassin's cowardly stab ! Perhaps just
this, and nothing short of it, was needed to bring the public
mind to a just and proper estimate of human life, and demand
the restoration of the death penalty to the place a God of jus-
tice and mercy has assigned it in the administration of govern-
ment.
Unquestionably there was reason to fear that treason would
be dealt with too leniently, in the flush and joy of our victories,
and triumph over rebellion. Perhaps our venerated President,
fraught with benignity and mercy, and prompted by his kind-
ness of heart to use the pardoning prerogative too freely, may
not have been the man for the keen and necessary work of
punishing treason, as it deserves, with the full penalty of the
law. God has removed him in the hour of his triumph, and
left this work to be performed by other hands, while He has
roused the nation to demand it, as the atonement needed for
the maintenance of government and the honor of His majesty.
A rebellion once in Israel was signally punished, by the in-
fliction of terrible judgment and desolation by the hand of
Providence upon its leaders. But the people who sympathized
with the rebellion murmured against Moses, and reproached
him with murder, for the course he adopted for the vindication
of the majesty of the law. It offended the Lord God of Israel,
and He let the plague loose among them, to destroy them for
their complaint against the enforcement of the demands of
retributive justice; and 14,700 of them were made to pay the
forfeiture of their lives. This, as an atonement, was required
before the plague was stayed.
On another occasion, treason was perpetrated in the camp of
Israel, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against them.
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14 Discourse
The plague again broke loose upon them, nor was it stayed till
the command of God was executed, and "all the heads of the
people," that had led them off in the treason, were hung up be-
fore the Lord against the sun. The zeal of Phinehas in exe-
cuting the penalty of death upon the traitors, is recorded to
his praise. Nor was the plague stayed till 24,000 had paid the
forfeiture of their lives. It is the same God, who required
such atonement, with whom we have, as individuals and a na-
tion, to do. He changeth not. If we as a nation profane His
ordinance of government, and prove false to His honor and our
obligations, and the interests of society, we, too, shall not
escape the vengeance of His law. Talk as men may in their
impious and boastful infidelity, atonement forms a marked and
essential feature in the Divine government. That atonement
He will exact; and He has abundant means at His command to
enforce it. How easy would it be for Him to let factions arise,
and the leaven of tolerated rebellion diffuse itself among us to
our utter ruin, to say nothing of other natural, moral and
political means of punishing us for our contempt of justice,
law and good government! We have a solemn duty to God and
society to perform. If, as a nation, we humble ourselves before
Him, and as individuals accept and rely upon the atonement
He has provided for us, in Jesus Christ, through which alone
He can exercise consistently His clemency and mercy in the
forgiveness of sin, He can and will heal our land, and cleanse
it of the blood which has been so wickedly and wantonly shed.
The indications and interpositions of His providence, from the
very beginning of the war, have been so marked and so pecu-
liar in our favor, that he must be stricken with the like blind-
ness which has smitten the rebellious, who sees the mnot. "God
has done great things for us whereof we have been glad."
40
Discourse 15
Through Him, our forces, by land and sea, have done valiantly;
and by Him they have trod down our enemies. But our loved
and honored Josiah has been among the slain; and today the
land mourneth. Lamentation is heard in every direction, and
the tokens and habiliments of woe are spread out before the
heavens. How jealous has God been for us! He has over-
turned every human idol, one after another, which we have set
up among our Generals, and glorified for triumph; and, when
He was prepared to lead us to victory, gave us men of valor,
wisdom, humility and patriotic zeal, to exalt their country's
honor, above selfish ambition and fame, and give the glory of
our success to whom it is due. In the death of President Lin-
coln, He has pursued the same plan of His gracious providence
toward us. We might have put him in the place of God, and
forgotten whose right hand hath gotten us the victory. In an
instant He removed him from us, without one opportunity of
uttering a final adieu. We look to his life for the proofs of his
acceptance with God, and cherish gratefully his own story of
the consecration of himself to God.
Would that he had fallen elsewhere than at the very gates of
Hell — in the theatre, to which through persuasion, he so re-
luctantly went. But thus a stain has been put upon that so
falsely called school of virtue. How awful and severe the re-
buke, which God has administered to the nation, for pampering
such demoralizing places of resort! The blood of Abraham
Lincoln can never be effaced from the stage. God grant that it
may prove the brand of infamy consigning the theatre, which
even Solon and the old moral Greeks abhorred, to the disgrace
it merits, and the abhorrence of this nation.
16 Discourse
"The memory of the just is blessed." His name is embalmed
in the hearts of this people, and his fame, like that of Wash-
ington, shall last while these United States endure; which, may
God grant, shall be to the coming of the Lord.
His toils are past, his work is done,
His spirit fully blest,
He fought the fight, the victory won,
And entered into rest.
Then let our sorrows cease to flow —
God has recalled His own;
But let our hearts in every woe
Still say "Thy will be done."
CAPTAIN LINCOLN vs. PRIVATE THOMP-
SON, 1832
WHILE searching for material on the history of the Black
Hawk War, I found, of course, the stereotyped version
of the historic wrestling match between the future Presi-
dent and the only man who ever worsted him. It was the same
as appears in Nicolay and Hay's "Life." Not until long after-
wards did I secure the details of it, and this is the first time
they have been published. Long ere Lincoln became famous,
the story had spread over Illinois, and it is, it must be ad-
mitted, a pleasure to turn from the later record of the great
man, to the early, robust Lincoln of twenty-three; the young
man of stature and strength, informal as he was when just
reaching man's estate, and possessed of his first prize in life:
for, ridiculous as it may now seem, to class the modest office of
captain of a company of sixty-day volunteer militia, as a
proud position, Leonard Swett has recorded the assertion of
Lincoln that the day of his election to the rank, in 1832, was
the proudest of his life.
When the governor of Illinois called out the militia, to re-
move Black Hawk and his band of Indians from Illinois, Lin-
coln was, as himself has told us, "out of a job," and en-
listment invited him to adventure, possibly to place, perhaps
even to renown. A company of sixty-eight (two were after-
wards added) more or less intractable spirits was organized in
Sangamon county, April 21, 1832. They elected Lincoln cap-
tain, and John Armstrong, first sergeant. The latter was the
individual who had undertaken, some years before, to intro-
duce Lincoln to "life" in New Salem, through the medium of
a wrestling match ; the result of which had been disastrous to
2 Captain Lincoln vs. Private Thompson, 1832
the future sergeant. William Kirkpatrick, said to have earlier
stolen a scrub-hook from Lincoln, had been his rival for the
captaincy, and now was "recognized" by being made second
sergeant. The Clary boys, Royal and Williams, sharers in the
Armstrong affair, were also of the company, while two others,
whose names recall the love episode whose ending was destined
to almost cost Lincoln his reason, were John and David Rut-
ledge. The seventy have all passed into obscurity — the name
of their youthful captain has gone around the world, "one of
the few, the immortal names, that were not born to die."
Once organized, the company was marched to Beardstown,
and sworn into the service by General Hardin. Here the Cap-
tain met two men who were destined to become his intimate
friends for years thereafter — 0. H. Browning and Edward D.
Baker.
The host of volunteers being now formed into regiments,
marched to the mouth of Rock River where Captain Lincoln
was to meet three other men, regular Army officers, who were
to be prominent in his life twenty-nine years later, when he had
left Illinois forever — Lieutenants Robert Anderson, Albert
Sidney Johnston, and Jefferson Davis.
0. H. Browning's diary records that the May nights were
"cold and tempestuous," so that good camp sites, with wood
and water, were eagerly sought for and frequently fought for
as well. At the first camp, near Beardstown, the Lincoln com-
pany and that of Captain William Moore, of St. Clair county,
came into collision for this reason, and Lincoln proposed to set-
tle the matter by a wrestling match— one captain against the
other. Moore declined, but told his brother Jonathan to pick
out a man from his company. This was done, Lorenzo Dow
Thompson being the champion, although apparently so much
44
Captain Lincoln vs. Private Thompson, 1832 3
inferior to Lincoln in size and strength that the Sangamon
company, to a man, wagered their all on their captain. Actual
cash being scarce, everything else was wagered — guns, powder-
horns, watches, coats — even future pay was mortgaged, and
Sangamon appeared as a "sure thing." But the St. Clair men
stood firmly for Thompson, and took every bet offered. The
combatants clinched, a brief Titanic struggle ensued — and the
future President was thrown flat! The din which followed
would have silenced a thunderstorm: the champion of Sanga-
mon had been conquered — Goliath by an unknown David ! But
his men roared "only one — two more falls to come." and again
the antagonists clinched, a long struggle, and the pair fell in a
heap. "Dog fall," yelled Sangamon: "Fair fall," roared St.
Clair, and a serious fight was imminent, and only averted by
the defeated Captain, who proved himself a "good loser."
Springing to his feet before the referee could announce his de-
cision, he cried : "Boys ! The man actually threw me once fair-
ly, broadly so, and this second time — this very fall, he threw
me fairly, though not apparently so." This settled the matter,
and his frankness saved his wrestling reputation, although the
Sangamon company "went broke" in consequence.
Twenty-eight years elapse before the curtain rises on the
second act of our drama, and on August 8th, 1860, a delega-
tion of college students from McKenzie College, Lebanon, Ill-
inois, headed by Professor Risdon M. Moore, are calling upon
Abraham Lincoln at his home in Springfield. The one-time
militia captain is now a noted lawyer, has been a Representa-
tive at Washington, and is the Republican nominee for Presi-
dent. Lieutenant Governor Koerner introduces Professor
Moore, adding "of St. Clair county." In the conversation
which follows Mr. Lincoln eyes him constantly, finally asking:
45
4 Captain Lincoln vs. Private Thompson, 1832
"Which of the Moore families do you belong to? I have a
grudge against one of them." "I suppose it is my family, for
my father was referee in a celebrated wrestling match — but
we are going to elect you President, and call it even !"
There were present at that meeting the same 0. H. Brown-
ing who had witnessed the Beardstown match, Norman B.
Judd, Richard J. Oglesby, and some others, to all of whom Mr.
Lincoln related the story as we have told it, adding: "I owe the
Moores a grudge, as I never had been thrown in a wrestling-
match until that man from the St. Clair company did it. He
could have thrown a grizzly bear."
And Jonathan Moore — what of him? Although over sixty
years old in '61, he enlisted, was captain of Co. G, Thirty-
second Illinois, and fought at Shiloh and on other fields,
worthily upholding the traditions of his family, who in the
early history of Illinois were called the "Fighting Moores," by
reason of their daring in the Indian and 1812 Wars, and the
border troubles of the frontier.
And "Dow" Thompson — what of him? He emigrated to
Harrison county, Missouri, and was its first representative in
the General Assembly, 1846-48. Positive in all his convictions,
and called eccentric near the end of his life, all who knew him
testify that he was able, upright, a good neighbor and citizen.
He died in 1875, surviving his great antagonist at Beards-
town by ten years, and is buried in Oakland cemetery, six miles
north of Bethany, Missouri.
Singularly enough, we are told that to Bethany emigrated
from Illinois one Peter Rutledge, who claimed to be a brother
of Ann Rutledge, Lincoln's first love.
Frank E. Stevens.
Chicago.
46
A NEW LINCOLN STORY
AT no time for a long period has more attention been given
to the character, influence and steadfast qualities of
Abraham Lincoln than seems to have filled the minds of
men, both here and abroad, during the past three years — that
is, since the Armistice. New statues of him have been erected,
many and fresh eulogies spoken, on both sides of the Atlantic;
even a great play has been written about him by an English-
man, which has had an almost unprecedented run, both here
and in England.
Since the armistice, nations seem struggling in a bottomless
quagmire, with nothing solid to cling to. Perhaps that may be
the reason why so many people's thoughts have turned to the
memory of Lincoln, as one would reach out and strive to lay
hold of a rock in a quagmire.
This makes me believe that a quite personal and hitherto un-
published story about him might be of interest to the public.
It was recalled to mind lately, while looking at the clay
model of the latest Lincoln statue, which the sculptor, Daniel
C. French had just finished for the Lincoln Memorial in Poto-
mac Park at Washington.
As I stood studying that grave, reflective figure, with the
right hand partly open as if to receive all the facts of life, the
left firmly clinched, as though to hold and use them to best
advantage, out of the Past of memory came this story. It was
told me by Major Garvard Whitehead, who went to the Civil
War with the celebrated Philadelphia City Troop, and served
in various capacities until the end.
On this particular occasion during the darkest and most
2 A New Lincoln Story
trying days of the great struggle, the young officer was sent to
Washington, with secret dispatches of the greatest importance.
He was ushered at once into the President's private room, a
very bare and simply furnished one indeed. Mr. Lincoln, seat-
ed at his desk, took the papers and motioned the young officer
to be seated, while he studied them. Absorbed in their con-
tents, the President fell into a deep study, looking probably
just as the statue represents him; while the tired messenger
scarcely dared breathe for fear of breaking in upon those anx-
ious thoughts.
The one window of the room was open and across the sultry
sky came up heavy thunder clouds; the storm broke and rain
began to pour into the room. The officer did not think of mov-
ing while the Commander-in-Chief of the Army was so en-
grossed; so he sat, and watched the rain form a pool on the
floor, and slowly trickle across it, almost to the feet of the
President, absorbed and unconscious. At last Mr. Lincoln
made his decision, seemed to rouse from his deep reflections
and becoming conscious of the young despatch bearer, told him
to return in an hour, when the answering despatch would be
ready for him.
Major Whitehead told me that from that moment he always
pictured in his mind that grave, strong figure who was so ab-
sorbed in the care of his people that the wildest storm could
not divert his attention.
M. C. de K.
Outlook, N. Y.
LINCOLN'S SELECTION OF HIS FIRST
CABINET
LINCOLN'S REASONS FOR HIS CABINET
He wished to combine the experience of Seward, the integrity of Chase, the popularity
of Cameron; to hold the West with Bates, attract New England with Welles, please the
Whigs through Smith, and convince the Democrats through Blair. Nicolay and Hay.
SHOULD a candidate for President, once he is nominated,
tell the voters who will become membres of his Cabinet if
he is elected? There was quite some discussion over this
subject during the Harding-Cox contest. The general opinion
seemed to be that as a Cabinet has so much to do with the
shaping of an Administration advance information should be
given. But it has never been done in this country, although
there have been some elections which cast tell-tale Cabinet
selection shadows before them. All in all, it seems likely that
the plan of the future will be the one we have always followed,
but in all cases to bend our energies to the selection of candi-
dates whose judgment is to be relied upon in the making of
wise Cabinet choices. It cannot be otherwise than true that a
splendid Cabinet might make a success of a weak executive's
Adminstration. Such things have been witnessed by men and
women still living.
If ever there has been a time when this country of ours was
on tip-toe over Cabinet-making that time was just sixty years
ago — a little after the new year of 1861 had dawned and when
Abraham Lincoln was selecting the seven men who were to
2 Lincoln's Selection of His First Cabinet
form his first Cabinet. In going over very carefully the events
of his career up to that time we can find no task which called
forth the skill, the patience, tact and diplomacy which he dis-
played in this regard. The country was rent asunder with in-
ternal strife, but Mr. Lincoln still had the hope that in the
selection of his Cabinet he might avert a civil war. Vain hope !
Still he did not shrink from the task nor leave a thing undone
for which he could be justly criticized.
A Man of Small Reputation
When the Chicago Convention in 1860 nominated Mr. Lin-
coln, he was a few months beyond his fifty-first year — one of
the youngest men to have attained the nomination. But he was
almost unknown outside of the Middle West; he enjoyed no
wide reputation as had Calhoun, Webster or Clay in a genera-
tion just passing from the stage of political activity as Mr.
Lincoln came upon it. True, some fourteen years before he had
been elected to Congress but only for a single term and at a time
when Illinois was not yet a force in the political arena at
Washington, and for the most part, his acquaintanceship with
senators and congressmen came later. Few of the men who
were in Congress when Mr. Lincoln served were there when he
was elected President.
If some writers are to be believed, the Lincoln Cabinet mem-
bers were selected on election night, November 6, 1860, at the
telegraph office in Springfield where he went to receive the re-
turns. Some of these same writers must have been fictionists
also, for the Cabinet was not selected then nor members' names
jotted down on the back of an envelope, nor the task so easily
disposed of as some would have us believe. We know, of
course, that directly following the inauguration he sent to the
Senate his selection and it at once confirmed these names :
50
Lincoln's Selection of His First Cabinet 3
For Secretary of State, William H. Seward of New York.
For Secretary of Treasury, Salmon P. Chase of Ohio.
For Secretary of War, Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania.
For Secretary of Navy, Gideon Welles of Connecticut.
For Secretary of the Interior, Caleb B. Smith of Indiana.
For Attorney-General, Edward Bates of Missouri.
For Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair of Maryland.
This had, however, been the work of months, and while it
gave Mr. Lincoln a Cabinet, changes came very early in his
Administration. The initial one was the making of Edwin M.
Stanton Secretary of War in place of General Cameron; and
only two members of the original Cabinet, Messrs. Seward and
Welles, remained when Mr. Lincoln began his second Adminis-
tration in March, 1865.
Lincoln's Advisers
Very likely Mr. Lincoln had decided on election night that
Mr. Seward should be a member of his cabinet and his earliest
expressed wishes also included the name of Mr. Bates. Two
men more than all others — neither early intimate friends of
Mr. Lincoln — had much to do with the formation of his Cabi-
net. Vice President-elect Hamlin was one of these men. He
had already served in both branches of Congress and already
knew more of the qualifications of men then in public life than
did Mr. Lincoln. The other man was Thurlow Weed, who fill-
ed a unique place in the political history of the United States
and who was loved and trusted by every public man of promin-
ence from the time he entered on his active career of journal-
ism and politics in central New York in 1818 until the curtain
fell in 1882. To Weed more than to any other person Mr. Se-
ward owed his place in the Cabinet. Weed backed the latter at
the Chicago convention and had been much annoyed and de-
51
4 Lincoln's Selection op His First Cabinet
jected by Mr. Seward's defeat. Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Hamlin
met in Chicago. Nothing outwardly definite was done respect-
ing the formation of the Cabinet until this meeting. The first
real step was a letter written on December 8, 1860, and ad-
dressed to Mr. Seward at Washington. It contained a request
that he become Secretary of State. The letter was accompan-
ied by a less formal message in which Mr. Lincoln said, among
other things : "In regard to the patronage sought with so much
eagerness and jealousy, I have prescribed for myself the
maxim, 'Justice to all,' and I earnestly beseech your coopera-
tion in keeping the maxim good." Before the end of December
Seward had accepted.
Wise Selections
Only a few days after sending the letter to Mr. Seward a
verbal message had been sent to Mr. Bates at St. Louis that
Mr. Lincoln would go there and consult with him about some
points in connection with the formation of the Cabinet. And
Mr. Bates was offered the Attorney-Generalship, and in a few
days he accepted the office. Thus Mr. Lincoln had obtained for
himself whatever prestige Mr. Seward had in the State of New
York, and by the selection of Mr. Bates had done his best to
keep Missouri loyal to the Union. The name of Mr. Smith of
Indiana, was added as the third name to the list. That of
Colonel Henry S. Lane of the same State had been considered
and then rejected. Schuyler Colfax, later Vice President, had
been urged for a Cabinet position. Mr. Colfax was a man
much younger than either Mr. Smith or Mr. Bates, was a
newspaper editor, and his friends had urged his name strong-
ly. He had entered Congress in 1854 when thirty-three years
old. The reason Mr. Lincoln did not appoint him was not dis-
closed until after the inauguration of the President, and then
Lincoln's Selection of His First Cabinet 5
Mr. Lincoln wrote Mr. Colfax a frank letter, in which he made
a statement which had impelled the selection of Mr. Smith. In
the letter he said, "When you were brought forward I said,
'Colfax is a young man, is already in position, is running a
brilliant career, and is sure of a bright future in any event —
with Smith it is now or never.' "
Early in his selecting of a Cabinet Mr. Lincoln had express-
ed the wish that Mr. Chase of Ohio should become a member.
He had been governor of his State, and was a man of well-
known executive ability and of absolute integrity of character.
Mr. Lincoln believed that his name as a Cabinet member would
inspire great confidence. His selection, however, was fraught
with some danger, for the reason that the State of Pennsyl-
vania had put forward Senator Cameron, its then most prom-
inent public citizen, and desired him also appointed to a posi-
tion in the Lincoln Cabinet. Whether or not it was advisable
to appoint one member from Ohio and one member from Penn-
sylvania was a question which Mr. Lincoln had to wrestle with
and weigh with great care and deliberation. His mind finally
was made up, and by the end of December he despatched a let-
ter to General Cameron offering him the position of Secretary
of the Treasury or Secretary of War. This letter to General
Cameron was perhaps the one which caused more trouble for
Mr. Lincoln than any he wrote during his entire public career.
Only a few later, on January 3, 1861, another letter was
sent to General Cameron, in which Mr. Lincoln stated that it
was impossible for him to be taken into the Cabinet. He gave
no definite reasons, but permitted the general to guess what
the reasons might be. They were, as a matter of fact, due to a
factional contest which was then being waged against him in
Pennsylvania. In his second letter Mr. Lincoln urged General
Cameron to write him and decline the appointment. The lat-
53
6 Lincoln's Selection of His First Cabinet
ter, however, apparently believed that his selection to a posi-
tion in the Cabinet would mean his reintrenchment in his State
and he was reluctant to lose whatever prestige and enhanced
position Mr. Lincoln's offer to a position might give him.
With matters in this position the friends of William L. Day-
ton of New Jersey were strongly urging his selection, but as
we know now General Cameron was finally appointed.
Once Mr. Seward was selected he felt seemingly free to urge
the selection of the other members. One of his efforts and
pleasing for a time to Mr. Lincoln, was the appointment of a
Southern man. Mr. Seward had been one of those who had
urged for a position in the Cabinet either John C. Fremont,
Randall Hunt, of Louisiana, or John A. Gilmer or Kenneth
Raynor, of North Carolina, and offered to learn whether or not
they would accept. The names of Robert E. Scott and John M.
Botts, both of Virginia; Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland;
Bailey Peyton and Meredith P. Gentry, both of Tennessee,
were considered in connection with the position of Postmaster-
General, which finally went to Mr. Blair. But Mr. Lincoln
was quick to see a danger to this course. On January 12, 1861
he pointed to it in a letter to Mr. Seward : "I fear if we could
get we could not safely take more than one such man — that is,
not more than one who opposed us in the election, the danger
being to lose the confidence of our own friends/'
The Cabinet Completed
Matters rested in that position until Mr. Lincoln arrived in
Washington. Mr. Seward was to be Secretary of State; Mr.
Bates, Attorney-General; Mr. Smith, Secretary of the Interior;
Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury. The tender to General
Cameron had been recalled, but he had not declined. No mem-
ber of New England had been finally selected, but Gideon
54
Lincoln's Selection of His First Cabinet 7
Welles was the man most forcibly urged and the one whom Mr.
Lincoln most desired. One of the sharpest contests waged was
by the friends of Mr. Blair and of Mr. Davis for the position
of Postmaster-General. Mr. Blair was a man considerably
older, of wider experience and of more influential family, and
these were probably the combined reasons why he was finally
selected. There was the eleventh-hour declining by Mr. Se-
ward to go into the Cabinet, but Mr. Lincoln had very early
made up his mind to have him serve and his "I cannot afford
to have Seward take the first trick" was so skillfully played
that Mr. Lincoln and the nation obtained the services of this
man who could not without loss have been spared during the
stressful times which followed closely upon the inauguration
of Abraham Lincoln.
John Davis Anderson.
Transcript, Boston.
THE PERSONNEL OF LINCOLN'S CABINET
Abraham Lincoln, Elected President, 1860. Born February
12, 1809, in Hardin, now Larue county, Kentucky. Died April
15, 1865, at Washington, D. C.
Hannibal Hamlin, Elected Vice President, 1860. Born
August 27, 1809, in Paris, Maine. Died July 4, 1891, at Ban-
gor, Maine.
Lincoln's First Cabinet, 1861
William H. Seward. Born May 6, 1801, at Florida, N. Y.
Died October 10, 1872, at Auburn, N. Y.
Salmon P. Chase. Born January 13, 1808, at Cornish, N. H.
Died May 7, 1873, at New York.
Simon Cameron. Born March 8, 1799, at Maytown, Pa.
Died June 26, 1889, at Maytown, Pa.
8 Lincoln's Selection of His First Cabinet
Gideon Welles. Born July 1, 1802, at Glastonbury, Conn.
Died February 1, 1898, at Hartford, Conn.
Caleb B. Smith. Born April 16, 1808, at Boston, Mass.
Died January 7, 1864, at Indianapolis, Ind.
Edward Bates. Born September 4, 1793, at Belmont, Va.
Died March 25, 1869, at St. Louis, Mo.
Montgomery Blair. Born May 10, 1813, in Franklin county,
Ky. Died July 27, 1883, at Silver Springs, Md.
MEMORIES OF LINCOLN
WHEN the troops were being mobilized in 1898 for the war
against Spain, the First Illinois Cavalry, of which I was
made chaplain, was sent to Springfield, the capital of the
State, and, aside from the routine duties as postmaster of the
regiment, I found myself with considerable leisure in which I
could hunt up people who had known Lincoln personally — had
talked intimately with him and gathered at first-hand some of
the anecdotes that later became common possessions. Every
place with which Lincoln's name was associated was visited in
a search for the possible thing that others had missed. The in-
terest developed in this way has made me something more than
a worshipper at the shrine of our first martyr President. It
has taken me to his birthplace in Kentucky, to the haunts of
his boyhood and to the place on the Ohio where he earned his
first dollar. It has led me to the grave of his mother and to
the low mound that marks the grave of Ann Rutledge. I have
sought out the places where he spoke of the issues that had to
be settled by the arbitrament of war. My library has its larg-
est section given to books written by those who knew him and
loved him and by those who look upon him through the eyes of
a stranger — as when Lord Charnwood and Mr. Drinkwater
try to give expression to a conception of Lincoln formed under
other skies.
But this is not what I startd out to say. I wanted to speak
of "memories" of Lincoln that still make up part of life's
richest possessions for men and women who live along the old
turnpike roads that run out of Springfield and Bloomington
and that part of Illinois that knew Lincoln as "he rode the cir-
2 Memories of Lincoln
cuit" in the days when he practiced law. I recently came upon
an old man — just turning into the eighties — who told me
stories of those days and described to me his Lincoln. Every
man paints the picture that pleases him best. This old man's
favorite picture of Lincoln was that of a man with a wealth of
black hair that hung over a broad smooth forehead and was
brushed back till it partly hid the top part of large but not ill-
shaped ears. The beard was neatly trimmed, leaving the up-
per lip quite free, so that the smile that lighted up the face
whenever there was a sally of humor that stirred the deeper
soul, could be traced from its slightest beginnings throughout
its brief life.
A characteristic attitude was one in which Lincoln would sit
with his eyes turned toward the floor, or toward some distant
object, utterly oblivious to all that was transpiring around
him. When an answer to any question had been evolved
through one of those pensive periods, no revision was ever
afterward necessary.
All this was indicated in a photograph by Brady that the old
man gave to me — a keepsake to be long treasured. On the
back of the picture is written "A very good likeness of Abra-
ham Lincoln as I knew him, T. A. Isbell. Presented by A.
Lincoln." I have not seen it reproduced amongst the familiar
portraits of Lincoln. (This was the seated portrait.)
(Rev.) Lt. Col. C. Seymour Bullock.
Transcript, Boston.
THE BIG STRANGER ON DORCESTER HEIGHTS
PERHAPS it was Saturday; anyway, it was one of the first
days of March, 1860. Paul Duvernay and Bowdoin Ca-
pen had been playing marbles on a bare spot of clay near
the junction of Dorchester street and Broadway, South Boston.
It was afternoon, and not late. At that period school hours
were different; Wednesday had a half-holiday and Saturday
but a half-holiday. Hence this was either Wednesday, Sat-
urday, or truancy. Paul was capable of a companionable lapse
of that character; Bowdy was a persuasive boy. When the
sun comes beaming north it entices people out into its smiling
warmth; often induces older persons than those just entering
their teens to bathe in its glorious flood.
When the boys parted Bowdy took the marbles home with
him; Paul's pockets were as light as his spirits, as he went up
Linden street toward where his father was at work on a row
of houses then building on the Old Harbor side of the hill.
About half-way up this street Paul heard someone coming
from behind with long, strong strides. Turning, the boy saw a
gigantic man swinging up the narrow walk ; soon the two came
close together. "Say, Bub, is this the right road to Dorchester
Heights?"
"Yes, sir."
"Pretty steep walking, isn't it? Ain't many hills where I
live."
Paul volunteered to guide the stranger, and the foot of the
preserve was quickly reached.
Curiosity prompted the boy to climb the incline in company
with the visitor. At the top they halted in the middle near the
little reservoir which then occupied the present site of a school-
house.
59
2 The Big Stranger on Dorchester Heights
"Of course you know the history of this place?" asked the
stranger.
"Everybody knows that."
They faced the harbor; the State House dome shone far
away on the left.
"The fleet lay about there," said the boy, glad to show his
knowledge.
"Then Washington planted his guns where we stand?"
"So everybody says, sir."
"And George Washington probably stood just where I now
stand. Here he made history that counts for something."
The great big man stooped over and scrabbled up a handful
of pebbles which he put into his trousers pocket. He was
dressed in black cloth ; he wore a tall hat, as many men did at
that time.
"Probably this gravel was brought here from somewhere
else. Well! So was I; but both of us are better for having
been here."
This was not said to Paul but addressed to the surroundings.
Soon the stranger saw all that interested him and said,
"Bub, I am glad to have been here, I may not have another
opportunity, and am glad to have come."
Paul accompanied the man down to Broadway and Dor-
chester street. He had never seen so big a man before, nor so
gaunt a face, nor such sad eyes that could light up so finely.
This face fixed itself in his memory.
After a long wait a horse-car came along and the big man
thanked Paul for his kindness, wrapped the boy's hand and
wrist within his gigantic hand and went cityward.
The summer came with intense interest. The crisis with
slavery had come. Everyone was excited. Conventions had
nominated candidates and political clubs were formed. Wide-
60
Lincoln on the Tariff 1
Awakes paraded every night with flaming lamps and oil-cloth
capes. Paul was now fourteen and quite tall, so he enrolled.
He was one of the most enthusiastic members of the club,
for there at the end of Waitt's Hall on the high wall was a pic-
ture of the big stranger who had visited Washington Heights
in his company. Under this picture was "Abraham Lin-
coln."
Albert Duvernay Pentz.
West Lynn, Mass.
LINCOLN ON THE TARIFF
Sir: The "familiar Lincoln quotation" which you copy from
the Philadelphia Ledger, but which you have not been able to
find in any authentic works of the great man, must be a fiction.
The quotation is in these words :
"I do not know much about the tariff, but I know this much,
when we buy manufactured goods abroad we get the goods and
the foreigner gets the money. When we buy manufactured
goods at home we get the goods and the money."
My reason for thinking that Lincoln never said this is that
he was not a fool. He knew that a good rule must work both
ways. In the case supposed, both the foreigner and ourselves
could double their wealth by not trading at all. How strange
that the world never before discovered this method of amassing
riches by abolishing commerce altogether !
The fallacy in the quoted saying consists in the misuse of the
word money. When we buy goods abroad we do not pay for
them with money, but with our own products — in Lincoln's time
mostly with wheat, corn, beef, and cotton; at the present time
large and increasingly with automobiles, sewing machines, type-
writers, locomotives, and other manufactures. Very little
2 Lincoln on the Tariff
money passes between us and the foreigner; just enough to
settle balances arising from the exchange of goods. Sometimes
the balance is for us, and sometimes against us.
The opinions of Mr. Lincoln on the protective tariff half a cen-
tury ago are perhaps not very important now, in view of the
enormous changes that have taken place in the industrial affairs
of the nation. He could not have given any opinions later than
1865. The latest that he did, so far as I have been able to dis-
cover, are embraced in the following letter :
"Clinton, III., October 11, 1859.
"Mr. Edward Wallace.
"My Dear Sir : I am just now attending court. Yesterday,
before I left Springfield, your brother, Dr. William S. Wallace,
showed me a letter of yours in which you kindly mention my
name, inquire for my tariff views, and suggest the propriety of
my writing a letter upon the subject. I was an old Henry Clay
tariff Whig. In old times I made more speeches on that subject
than any other. I have not since changed my views.
"I believe yet if we could have a moderate, carefully adjusted
protective tariff, so far acquiesced in as not to be a perpetual
subject of political strife, squabbles, and uncertainties, it would
be better for us.
"Still, it is my opinion that just now the revival of that ques-
tion will not advance the cause itself or the man who revives it.
"I have not thought much upon the subject recently, but my
general impression is that the necessity of a protective tariff
will, ere long, force its opponents to take it up ; and then its old
friends can join and establish it on a more firm and durable
basis.
"We, the old Whigs, have been entirely beaten on the tariff
62
Lincoln Letters 3
question, and we shall not be able to re-establish the policy until
the absence of it shall have demonstrated the necessity for it in
the minds of men heretofore opposed to it. With this view I
should prefer not now to write a public letter upon the subject.
I therefore wish this to be considered confidential. Yours truly,
A. Lincoln."
The foregoing letter was printed in the Chicago Tribune of
March 16, 1867. I believe it has not been included in any of
Lincoln's collected works. Although authentic it cannot be con-
sidered important, but if the writer of it had believed that all
nations could double their wealth by refraining from trade with
each other this would have been a suitable occasion for saying
so.
Horace White.
Evening Post, N. Y., April 10, 1919.
LINCOLN LETTERS
Springfield, 111., Oct. 26, 1860. To Major Gen. David Hunter.
"Private and Confidential." In reference to the rumors of op-
position to the Government in event of Republican success at
the polls.
"I have another letter, from a writer unknown to me, saying the officers of
the Army at Fort Kearny, have determined, in case of Republican success at the
approaching Presidential election, to take themselves and the arms at that point,
South, for the purpose of resistance to the Government — While I think there are
many chances to one that this is a humbug, it occurs to me that any movement
of this sort in the army, would leak out and become known to you In such
case, if it would not be unprofessional or dishonorable (of which you are to
judge) I shall be much obliged if you will apprize me of it."
Springfield, 111., Dec. 22, 1860. To Maj. Gen. David Hunter.
"Confidential."
4 Lincoln Letters
"I am much obliged by the receipt of yours of the 18th. The most we can
do now is to watch events, and be as well prepared as possible for any turn things
may take. If the forts fall, my judgment is that they are to be retaken — When
I shall determine definitely my time of starting to Washington I will notify you."
Washington, Oct. 24, 1861. To the Commander of the De-
partment of the West (Gen. Fremont). Referring to the ex-
pulsion of the rebels from Missouri, and the defeat of Price's
army, and their retreat upon North- Western Arkansas.
"The main rebel army (Price's) west of the Mississippi, is believed to have
passed Dade County, in full retreat upon North-Western Arkansas, leaving Mis-
souri almost freed from the enemy, excepting in the South-East of the State.
Assuming this basis of fact, it seems desirable [sic] as you are not likely to
overtake Price, and are in danger of making too long a line from your own base
of supplies and reinforcements, that you should give up the pursuit
Before Spring the people of Missouri will be in no favorable mood to renew,
for next year, the troubles which have so much afflicted and impoverished them
during this."
A fine letter, showing th«»keen insight of the President into things
military. He concludes his letter with a reiteration of a large discretion
which "must be, and is, left with yourself."
Executive Mansion, Washington, Dec. 31, 1861. To Major
Gen. Hunter. With envelope, on which Gen. Hunter has writ-
ten: "The President in reply to my 'ugly letter.' This letter
was kept on his table for more than a month, and then sent by
a private conveyance, with directions to hand it to me only
when I was in good humor ! ! ! !"
"Yours of the 23rd is received, and I am constrained to say it is difficult to
answer so ugly a letter in good temper. I am, as you intimate, losing much of
the great confidence I place in you .... from the flood of grumbling despatches
and letters I have seen from you No one has blamed you for the retrograde
movement from Springfield, nor for the information you gave Gen. Cameron, and
this you could readily understand if it were not for your unwarranted assumption
that the ordering you to Leavenworth must necessarily have been done as a punish-
ment for some fault You constantly speak of being placed in command of
only 3,000. Now tell me, is not this mere impatience? Have you not known all
the while that you are to command four or five times that many?
64
An Interview with Lincoln 5
"I have been, and am sincerely your friend; and if, as such, I dare to make
a suggestion, I would say you are adopting the best possible way to ruin your-
self. 'Act well your part, there all the honor lies' — He who does something at
the head of one regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a
hundred."
Written in pencil, on 16mo card. (To Sec. of War E. M.
Stanton.)
An extremely interesting little note, such as it was Lincoln's custom
to send over to the War Office, when he did not go there personally,
during the anxious hours while the news from distant battle-fields came
tediously over the- wires.
The present note was written during the critical September days
of 1862 when the Union Army in Tennessee under Gen. Buell was
retreating before Gen. Bragg and when consternation reigned in Louis-
ville and Cincinnati, which were temporarily exposed to attack.
It reads: "Has anything been heard from Buell lately? Is anything
being done for East Tennessee? A. Lincoln."
Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, April 1, 1863. To
Major Gen. Hunter. In regard to Union colored troops.
"I am glad to see the accounts of your colored force at Jacksonville, Florida.
I see the enemy are driving at them fiercely, as is to be expected. It is important
to the enemy that such a force shall not take shape, and grow and thrive, in the
South; and in precisely the same proportion, it is important to us that it shall.
Hence the utmost caution and vigilance is necessary on our part. The enemy will
make extra efforts to destroy them; and we should do the same to preserve and
; them."
AN INTERVIEW WITH LINCOLN
(By Ex-Gov. D. H. Chamberlain, in The Tribune, Nov. 4, 1883.)
It was my privilege once, and once only to talk with Abraham
Lincoln — at Petersburg, April 6, 1863.
His face, his figure, his attitude, his words, form the most
65
6 Lincoln at Gettysburg
remarkable picture in my memory, and will while memory
lasts.
I spoke to him of the country's gratitude for his great deliver-
ance of the slaves. His sad face beamed for a moment with his
happiness, as he answered in exact substance and very nearly
in words: "I have been only an instrument. The logic and
moral power of Garrison, and the anti-slavery people of the
country, and the army, have done all."
LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG
WHO FIRST DISCERNED THAT THE WORDS THEN SPOKEN WERE
IMMORTAL?
You are in error in the statement in your editorial article on
"Our National Birthday" on July 4 that the London Times first
discerned that Lincoln's Gettysburg address belonged to the
ages and was "deathless from the dead."
Neither the London Times nor any other foreign publication
is entitled to priority of recognition of the high merits of the
address, although such assertions have been repeatedly pub-
lished for the last thirty years or more. Least of all is the Lon-
don Times to be credited with such discovery, as shown by the
following excerpt from its paper of December 4, 1863, fifteen
days following the address, from the pen of its American cor-
respondent:
The Gettysburg ceremony was rendered ludicrous by some of the
sallies of that poor President Lincoln, who seems determined to play
in this great American Union the part of the famous Governor of
Barataria. Anything more dull and commonplace it wouldn't be easy
to produce.
It was an American, Dr. Josiah G. Holland, who, quick to
66
Lincoln and Oxford 7
see in Lincoln's words at Gettysburg something far above the
ordinary, wrote accordingly in the Springfield, (Mass.) Repub-
lican the day following. A few days later George William Cur-
tis and Henry W. Longfellow expressed themselves in like
strain.
The best information points to Goldwin Smith as the first
writer abroad to discover anything of special merit in the ad-
dress, his contribution on the subject being published in Mac-
millan's Magazine of February, 1865, fifteen months after the
London Times's diatribe above quoted. Statements of numer-
ous American writers awarding title of first discovery to the
Westminster Review and other English publications lack veri-
fication. Isaac Markens.
Sun, N. Y., July 8, 1920.
LINCOLN AND OXFORD
Attention has been called to this old query as to where the
Gettysburg address is shown in Oxford. Lincoln's Gettysburg
speech hangs in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. A perfect speech,
because so much is expressed in such few, simple words. The
Westminster Review, September, 1866, said : "It has but one
equal : in that pronounced upon those who fell during the first
year of the Peloponesian war, and in one respect it is superior
to that great speech. It is not only more natural, fuller of feel-
ing, more touching and pathetic, but we know with absolute
certainty that it was really delivered. Nature here fairly takes
precedence of art, even though it be the art of Thucydides."
Archer.
Transcript, Boston.
67
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